Starlink, a Social Media Operator, and the Starlink Internet Service: a Brazilian Company Suspended by the X-Government

Unlike in countries including Russia, Iran, and China, there is currently no legal apparatus or technical infrastructure by which the Brazilian government can systematically and comprehensively restrict access to particular websites or online platforms, or impose connectivity blackouts on its citizens.

There is a provision in the ban on the court ordering that people could be fined up to $8,900 per day if they use circumvention tools such as virtual private networks.

Mobile apps like X’s Android and iOS apps don’t rely on DNS, though, so DNS filtering alone is not enough to block all connections to a web platform. In Brazil, some ISPs are using the term “sinkholing” to refer to redirecting online traffic to a different server than users intended to visit.

Brazil’s Federal Police obtained a court order in April of23 to block the communication platform Telegram because it wouldn’t share information about users involved in neo-Nazi group chats. Telegram was blocked immediately by some large internet service providers. “However, the block was not implemented by all ISPs in Brazil, nor was it implemented in the same way,” the group wrote. “This suggests lack of coordination between providers, and that each ISP implemented the block autonomously.”

All the mobile and internet service providers in Brazil were ordered by the Supreme Court to block the platform, which has been mostly unavailable since Saturday. The court order followed a months-long dispute between Judge Alexandre de Moraes and X CEO Elon Musk over the company’s misinformation, hate speech, and moderation policies.

In the end, Starlink was caught in the crosshairs. The court froze the assets of Musk’s other company, saying that it was part of the same “economic group” as X given its ownership, for possible use to pay off fines owed by X. When the block came into effect Monday, Starlink allowed its customers—over 250,000 people, according to the company— to circumvent the X ban by using its satellite internet connection. After initial resistance, Starlink backed down and said it would comply. Experts who spoke to WIRED say that increasingly, it seems that Musk has overplayed his hand.

“I think he is realizing Brazilians are not going to take to the streets because X is suspended,” says Nina Santos, a researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology for Digital Democracy. “Brazilian institutions are not going to back off just because Musk is cursing online.”

Musk continues to antagonize the court. Last week, he posted a picture of Moraes behind bars that was supposed to be real, but was later removed, with another saying, “This picture of you in prison will be real one day.” and another comparing him to the villain from the Harry Potter books.

He has been toying with the image of Moraes, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, and escalating in a problematic way according to BrunaSantos, researcher and activist with Coalizo Direitos na Rede. “He was fully aware and he knew what the consequences would be.”

On the Effort of Musk on the Sale of Elusive Software in a Black Hole Research Lab and the Loss of a Globally Distributed App Store

The company lost access to its third largest market and 40 million users in less than two years after it was acquired by Mr. Musk. He appeared to have backed himself into a corner despite his online boast.